On the challenges of writing fiction

So I promised myself that I wouldn’t overschedule my time this summer,  because I wanted to have plenty of opportunity to finish a handful of creative projects I’ve been working on since forever. This is how I thought it would go:   But if you have been following along, you know that it has gone…

It may not look like it, but drawing these cartoons requires a great deal of practice!

I love summer holiday weekends because you don’t really have to do anything to get ready for them. You just sort of hang out with friends and have a glass of wine and if you forgot the wine then you just sort of have whatever everyone else is having. I noticed that I have been…

So you know that I have been trying very hard to learn how to relax, which isn’t easy WHEN THE FATE OF THE FREE WORLD DEPENDS ON YOU, or at least, you know, someone has to buy the groceries around here. It is a curious fact of my life how often these two things feel…

The other day, I made the mistake of saying the word “anywho” to a friend who is a lifelong New Yorker.  If you’ve never heard this word, it means you’re not a midwesterner, and I can’t explain it.  Anyway, my friend suggested that I should probably avoid such provincialisms in the future or else people…

I see these memes going around: “At age 30, JK Rowling was depressed and wanted to give up, but she didn’t and now she’s worth 15 kajillion dollars, so you shouldn’t give up either!” And I just . . . think that’s bullshit. It’s not helpful. In fact, I think it’s discouraging. You’re more likely…